Uzbekistan’s Murodjon Akhmadaliev did a three round demolition over Ricardo Espinoza in Monte Carlo, taking a highly competent contender and completely outclassing him with a punch variety that few fighters in boxing possess. And based on the post fight interviews from both he and promoter Eddie Hearn, the intention of this match up was clearly to make Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10 ko) a compelling and interesting opponent for pound for pound great Naoya Inoue.

MJ looked about as strong and dominant as a fighter could after a year layoff and dealing with some injuries in the past few years, and I was a little concerned to see him shaking his left arm out in the first two minutes of the first round, but once he started rolling, he was clearly several levels above Espinoza (30-5, 25 ko), who was game but had no answers. The right hook was the first shot that MJ found a home for in round two, and simply built a offensive rhythm off of it that very few fighters are going to be equipped to deal with.

Akhmadaliev has been an exciting but technical amateur standout on the fast track for his whole career and is the WBA “interim” champion, hence him wearing a belt post fight for a division that has an undisputed champion in Inoue. And in light of Sam Goodman being cut from a sparring session and having to withdraw from his fight with Inoue December 24th, Akhmadaliev seems to be the most obvious next opponent. We haven’t really seen Inoue in with a tactician at the level of Akhmadaliev, and should Inoue consider staying at 122 pounds for the foreseeable future, a fight with MJ is becoming unavoidable.

It’s a highly compelling matchup for the purists, and even if Akhmadaliev does not provide the name value of some of the bigger names up at featherweight, if this is Inoue’s division, this is the guy to fight. He has had two stoppage wins over then unbeaten Kevin Gonzalez, and now Espinoza since a tight decision loss to Marlon Tapales (who would go on to get stopped by Inoue) where he just got started too late. Whether he fights Inoue next or immediately is unclear, but the momentum seems to be moving in that direction.

Mosquea Edges Clarke
In a fight that looked like it had no chance of going 12, Leonardo Mosquea (16-0, 9 ko) edged out a split decision over an incredibly resilient Cheavon Clarke by (10-1, 7 ko) by scores of 117-113 for Clarke (an odd score meaning there were multiple rounds scored even), 116-112 and 115-112 for Mosquea. ITR boxing scored the bout 115-112 for Mosquea.

Mosquea had Clarke severely hurt in the first round, dropping him and continuing to pile on the punishment with hard combinations through the first two. But Clarke seemed to find something in the third, and though he never seemed to have his legs fully under him for the remainder of the fight, found a way to gradually box and move behind a jab to create a lot of 50-50 rounds through the middle and later portions of the fight. The difference in many of those rounds would wind up being that Clark seemed to be more affected by the shots of Mosquea than the reverse. It’s a massive win for Mosquea and certainly does nothing to hurt the brand of Clarke, who has nothing to be ashamed of but may want to go and take a look at his hitability early in the fight.

It seems that in boxing the cruiserweight division is often overlooked, which I find strange because it so often creates exciting fights and exciting matchups, the other one recently being Gilberto Ramirez’s exciting and compelling decision over Chris Billam-Smith. Hopefully this new crop of exciting cruiserweights, which also includes the likes of Jai Opetaia, can start to gain the public interest in a division that has so rarely captivated the fans.

Ferreira Makes First Defense of Title Since Olympics
IBF lightweight champion and Brazilian Olympian Beatriz Ferreira (6-0, 2 ko) defended her IBF title with a dominant 10 round shut out decision when over France’s Licia Boudersa (23-3-2, 4 ko). Ferreira, who also won a bronze medal at the 2024 Olympic games this year (as well as a silver in 2020) dominated the flight with her chopping combination punching style and overwhelmed her opponent with her superior footwork round after round. Ferreira is perhaps one of if not the best inside fighter in all of women’s boxing and Boudersa could do nothing to keep her off of her. It’s a big year for Ferreira, who has a lot to be excited about and is now a champion in a weight class and weight neighborhood filled with top-tier talent like Katie Taylor, Chantelle Cameron, Amanda Serrano, and some of the other biggest names in the sport. Ferreira looks like she deserves to be in the mix with that class fighter at this point in her career despite only have six professional fights. Boudersa showed a ton of heart to get through the fight standing and seemed to have limited mobility, highlighted by a brace on her knee.

Maxi is Really That Guy
In a truly stand out performance, Maxi Hughes outboxed, beat up, cut and dominated Gary Cully en-route to a 10 round shutout unanimous decision. Hughes (28-7-2, 6 ko), a long time veteran contender, was able to dominate Cully from the outset using his superior timing, footwork and the boxing IQ to get within range and keep Cully turning. Cully for his part seem to unable to find and use his distance, even with a massive height and reach advantage, walking straight in and into Hughes’s power shots over and over. 

In the fifth, the fight shifted from a boxing lesson to a true beat down, with Hughes hurting Cully in the fifth and badly cutting him in the sixth. From then on Hughes went into cruise control, jabbing and moving and occasionally letting go of a power shot as Cully came straight forward. Cully was not wearing the pace of the fight well and the cut was a gnarly one, but at no point did it seem that anyone considered stopping the fight.

Hughes is just one of those guys, like Abel Ramos, like Derek Chisora, an experienced, reliable contender with a deceiving record and a winning mentality. He was coming off a tuneup victory preceded by a highly controversial decision loss to George Kambosas and a beat down at the hands of Williams Zepeda. Where he stood at this point in his career was unclear going in, but this performance shows he has a lot more left to give and he can’t be counted out.

Cully (18-2, 10 ko) was once a promising and dynamic prospect not too long ago, but after I knockout loss to Jose Felix and forcing his 6’3” frame to make 135 pounds for so long, he just isn’t the same guy. It is unclear where he goes from here. A once explosive and fluid boxer puncture, Cully looked stagnant and unable to react. A move up in wait should be the first move. This is a feel good win for a guy in Hughes who has been in with a who’s who of his era, lost a couple tight ones, and hasn’t gotten some of the credit he deserves.

Other Notes

• Heavyweight Teremoana Junior Teremoana (5-0, 5 ko) made quick work of Volodymyr Katsuk (5-2, 2 ko), stopping him at 2:04 of round 1.
• Recently retired flyweight champion Sunny Edwards was phenomenal as a commentator in this one. Can’t remember if we have seen him call a whole card before or not, but I look forward to seeing him more as I could see him as potentially emerging as one of the top commentators in British boxing.